As requested by popular demand, here is the long overdue food blog post! As many of you know, the most Asian attribute of mine is perhaps the fact that I take photos of everything I eat, especially when I travel. I thought I'd take this opportunity to show everyone back at home some typical Peruvian and Iquiten cuisine. I broke it down into a couple of categories, including photos. Enjoy!
Breakfast -
A quick and easy meal here for us. Usually after our early morning run (5:30 am wake up!) at the soccer stadium, the girls and I will pick up some breakfast from the central market on the walk back. Breakfast here include things like juanes (a rice ball with chicken, eggs, and olives all wrapped up in a large tropical plant leaf), humitas (a tamale-like item made out of sweet corn), sandwiches, and a juice of some sort.
A quick and easy meal here for us. Usually after our early morning run (5:30 am wake up!) at the soccer stadium, the girls and I will pick up some breakfast from the central market on the walk back. Breakfast here include things like juanes (a rice ball with chicken, eggs, and olives all wrapped up in a large tropical plant leaf), humitas (a tamale-like item made out of sweet corn), sandwiches, and a juice of some sort.
Lunch - This may possibly be our favorite meal of the day, especially after a long day out in the field surveying from 8am to 2pm. A traditional lunch option here is called "menu", which essentially is a 2-course prixe fixe meal including an appetizer, a main course, and a jar of refreshing fruit juice. Our favorite place to go for "menu" is Huasai. Located just off the Plaza de Armas here in Iquitos, it is only 10 soles per meal and gives you a variety of options every single day. Never a dull moment, we have yet to repeat a meal at Huasai.
Dinner - We usually have dinner here around 7 or later. Many options await us. Some typical choices/main dishes include the following.
Pollo con Papas Fritas - grilled chicken and fries. Sounds simple? Simply delicious. Pollerias are everywhere. Iquitens love to frequent these chicken joints for some yummy chicken, and what else? Fries. Fries accompany almost EVERYTHING one can get here. I'm SO sick of fries. Was never a big fry-eater in the first place, and now they are everwhere. If you are lucky, you might be able to switch out the papas for some chaufa. What's chaufa you ask? Keep reading.
Parrilla - BBQ. Another common evening dining option. Every kind of meat imaginable grilled to perfection. We prefer the plato mixto, comes fully equipped with a mix of chicken, steak, pork chops, chorizo, and last but not least, anticucho, aka beef heart! No worries, cut into much smaller, and more manageable pieces, one cannot easily recognize its origin.
Chifa/Chaufa - Chinese food. Chinese people are everywhere, and so is our cuisine. Peru is no exception. Our favorite is the chaufa, aka friend rice. For some reason, the fried rice here tastes so much better than at home when I try to make it. We love to get a giant bowl of chaufa to split between the four of us. Perfectly tasty and economical, as a generous serving does not cost more than 15 soles.
This is it for now! Stay tuned for more food items that were not mentioned in this post. Coming up: cuy, cerviche, Inca Kola, arroz con leche, and more!
Xoxo,
Chlo
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